


Stranded

by Sinikka_von_Wolperting



Series: Whumptober 2018 [8]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blood and Injury, Stranded, Thunderstorms, Whump, Whumptober 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 15:35:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16307897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinikka_von_Wolperting/pseuds/Sinikka_von_Wolperting
Summary: A trip with the Royal Vessel goes horribly wrong when a storm approaches. Suddenly, Prompto is on his own.





	Stranded

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am again, day 9 is a bit back already, but well. Not giving up!  
> Have fun reading and thanks to markofthemoros and elillierose for beta reading!

This was supposed to be a fun trip. Cruising around with the Royal Vessel, sunbathing, fishing. This was supposed to be good.

Prompto sobbed and curled up a bit more. Still nothing to see anywhere. And it was getting dark.

“Shit.”

* * *

**Eight hours earlier**

 

“This is so awesome!” 

“Get off the roof, blondie, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“Naaah, I’m alright, don’t worry!”

“Come down now, Prom, I wanna drive farther out.”

“Even more?”

“Of course! Wanna catch a big one.”

* * *

Prompto’s throat was dry from screaming. He was even able to see the ragged line of mountains that served as a border between Accordo and Leide, but they seemed so far away. The blond wasn’t sure if he would be able to swim all the way. Not when he didn’t know what was beyond him.

One look at his leg confirmed it even more: he wouldn’t swim. It was still bleeding.

Carefully, he pulled at the bandanna that was wrapped around his right calf. It was soaked and not just with water. Drops of blood were creeping out from under it, out of a nasty cut. Trying not to look at it for too long, he wrapped the bandanna around the leg as tight as he could again, hoping it would finally stop bleeding.

* * *

**Seven hours earlier**

 

“Anything biting?” Prompto slumped down next to Noctis, who didn’t even take his eyes off the lure.

“Not if you keep jumping around like this,” the prince mumbled. “I saw some really big ones already. Just a matter of time, you’ll see.”

The blond snorted and leaned forward to look at the water. “I don’t see anything.”

“Don’t you dare jump in there, you’ll scare all the fish away!”

“Are you crazy?” Prompto instantly leaned back and gave his friend a playfully offended look. “Seriously, you don’t know what else is swimming around down there, I’d never jump in this bottomless pool of certain death!”

* * *

Wind picked up and ruffled his hair. The waves broke against the rock formation he was sitting on and Prompto curled up more. Not only was the night approaching, it seemed like another storm was about to begin.

He couldn’t climb higher up than he already was, could only hope that he wouldn’t get swept off by the waves if the storm got any stronger and some waves were already licking at his feet. 

Prompto’s eyes were still locked to the mountain ridge. Waiting for a sign, something - anything! But together with the sun, his spirit sank as well. Nothing came. 

* * *

**Six hours earlier**

 

“Come now, you two. Before your lunch gets cold,” Ignis clapped his hands to get their attention.

Reluctantly, Noctis put his fishing rod aside and got up, closely followed by Prompto. The blond had started dozing off while watching Noctis fish and so he spent almost a minute stretching and rubbing his eyes.

“I’ll eat your share if you you take too long, Prompto,” Gladio joked, but it got the blond moving.

“So,” Ignis looked over to the raven. “How much longer are we planning to stay out here?”

“What, you’re already sick of it, specs?”

“Not at all, I actually quite enjoy it. But do you remember what the gentleman at the pier told us? A storm is about to hit some time today.”

“Yeah, I remember. But look around,” Noctis pointed towards the sky. “Blue sky, only a few clouds, weather’s perfect right now. We can afford a couple more hours, don’cha think?”

* * *

A crack of thunder made Prompto flinch. It was directly above him. Within minutes he was engulfed in darkness, wind pulling at his clothes and waves showering him with water. 

He had no other choice than curling up even more and praying not to get thrown off. A particularly high wave suddenly swallowed everything and for a moment, Prompto was completely submerged. He felt himself slipping and was gasping for air when the wave had passed.

The salty water made the pain in his leg flare up again and it took all his strength to leave it alone. He could only try not to move it too much and hold onto the rock so he wouldn’t get pulled into the water.

* * *

**Five hours earlier**

 

“It’s like it’s alive,” Prompto whispered. He was leaning on the railing and watched the black clouds bulging and moving. It was moving towards them fast, but the blond couldn’t pull his eyes away from it.

The vibration of the boat’s motor starting traveled through his body and he turned towards the cabin. Noctis was getting ready to leave while Ignis and Gladio watched the oncoming storm with concern.

“I’m not sure if we can make it back before this hits us,” the advisor said. “We better get ready for a bumpy ride. Hurry, Noctis.”

“I’m doing my best,” the prince growled, accelerating the boat to speed towards Altissia. 

In the end, Ignis’ prediction came true and the storm hit when they were halfway back. They had been too far out on the open sea. They reacted too late, spent too much time just watching when the dark clouds started appearing on the horizon like a looming presence, a predator waiting to strike. And it got them.

* * *

Prompto had never seen lightning strike water. Under other circumstances this must have looked fascinating, but right now it was terrifying. The first strike he noticed was quite a bit away from him. Mere minutes later, the second came down much closer, accompanied by a roll of thunder that sounded almost like an explosion.

The blond couldn’t stop a panicked yelp escaping and pressed his body closer to the ragged surface. It felt like he was being pulled down to hell. There was wind, water and thunder all around him and the only light was the occasional lightning. 

At some point, the blond closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he’d survive this. The next rogue wave could pull him off his safe haven and into the black depths beyond, the next lightning strike could hit him, unable to seek cover. He was truly at nature’s mercy.

* * *

**Four hours earlier**

 

When did it happen? 

How?

He wasn’t able to hold onto the railing anymore, the boat was being pushed around by the waves like a toy.

Prompto remembered the others calling out to him, remembered trying to get to them. Then suddenly, he was in the air, then underwater. Losing all sense of direction, he blindly kicked his legs, hoping he turned the right way. Next, he was grabbed by another stream, a wave pulling him up and with him and through some incredible luck, he breached the surface. 

Gasping for air, he wanted to call out for the others, but he could barely make his voice sound out, before he was pulled under again. Prompto couldn’t see anything, there was water everywhere around him, in his mouth, his eyes.

A searing pain coursed through him when his leg caught onto something. Instinctively, he grabbed and held onto it with his dear life. He could feel his leg seizing up when saltwater infiltrated the wound but he kept clawing at the piece of rock, climbing it and eventually getting out of the water.

The blond wasn’t able to be happy about it though. Violently hacking, he crawled farther up until his stomach began repelling the water he had swallowed. Completely exhausted, he stayed like this, on all fours holding onto the little rock formation he was now stranded on.

It was still quite windy, but most of the storm had seemingly passed and when he was finally able to control his shaking limbs again, Prompto sat down. The first thing he looked at was his leg. A huge ragged cut traveled all the way down his calf and Prompto had to swallow a few times so he wouldn’t vomit again. 

It was deep, too deep for the gunner’s taste. A shaking hand pulled at his bandanna and he hastily wrapped it tightly around his leg, eliciting a few pained whimpers from him. It didn’t even cover all of it.

“Please, stop bleeding,” Prompto whispered and pressed both hands on the covered wound. This possibly wasn’t the best idea with the fabrinc being soaked with sea water as well, but he couldn’t think of anything else.

Trying to distract himself a little, he finally looked around. This ‘island’ he found, was really nothing more than a few rocks sticking out of the water. A pillar surrounded by water. Big enough for him to more or less comfortably sit on, but not enough space to really move around except for some pointed rocks to climb a bit higher.

Looking down into the water, he could see some more of the rocky surface before it vanished into darkness. The edges of the stones looked ragged and sharp. No doubt his leg was caught on one of those, he was possibly lucky the cut wasn’t deeper. 

There were a few of those ‘rock islands’ close to the ridge they had to pass to get to Altissia. Close by he could see some single pointed rocks peeking out of the water, but nothing worth mentioning. Or worth swimming to.

The weather seemed to mock him. The clouds were nothing more than a faraway shadow again and the sky was bright blue and beautiful.

The blond sat up and looked around, searching for a sign of the boat or his friends, but nothing.

“Guys?” his voice was hoarse from coughing, but soon the blond was screaming his lungs out, calling for help, calling for his friends but the only answer was the constant rushing of the waves.

* * *

When Prompto pried his eyes open again, it was still dark. The wind was gone, though, and when he looked up to the sky, he could see stars. And a thin streak of pink on the horizon. Did he fall asleep for that long?

Looking at his leg, he decided to rather call it ‘pass out’. Even in the dark, he could see the black streaks running down from under his makeshift bandage. But he seemed to have stunted the flow good enough to not actually bleed out.

“At least something I did right,” the blond sighed and laid his head back down. “But what now?”

Right on cue, his stomach began to growl. Of course.

“That storm was really bad,” he mused. “Both were. So what if….am I the last one?”

The thought of his friends being drowned and dead somewhere down there numbed him entirely. Everything would be over. He would die here of hunger and blood loss, becoming food for the seagulls. Tears pricked in his eyes and he tried to take a deep calming breath. It ended up being more like a hitched sob.

“Awesome.”

A shaky laugh creeped out of his mouth.

“What a way to go.”

* * *

His own shaking woke him up again. When did he even pass out? He couldn’t remember. 

The sun was just beginning to peek out between purple and orange clouds. A beautiful but cold sunrise. It was possibly going to be a very nice day. Prompto’s eyes wandered along the water. Waves calmly rippling and glistening in the sunlight.

He was about to close his eyes again when he noticed something new. A moving spot of light. Coming from the mountain ridge, it wandered along to the left for a bit, before turning and coming towards him. 

An animal?

No.

Slowly, the blond sat up. The light became bigger and something dark was behind it. When it began veering to the right and eventually fully turned, he knew what it was.

“Hey,” he gasped. “Please. O-over here!” His voice refused to work with him and so he sat up as good as he could and raised both arms, desperately waving to hopefully get their attention. 

When the boat seemed to turn away from him, his heart sank. “Please,” he sobbed. “Please don’t leave. I’m here!”

He got almost overwhelmed and knocked back down by dizziness when he got up, but he fought it down and somehow managed to balance on his good leg so as to not put too much strain on the other. Again, he raised his arms, kept waving, begging for it to turn back around and, just when he was about to lose hope, it happened.

The boat turned around again, seemingly accelerating a bit and coming directly towards him. Prompto couldn’t help but laugh, seeing help arrive, about to bring him to safety. His leg gave in and he had to sit back down, but he kept waving with one arm as if they would turn around if he stopped.

Suddenly, he saw a streak of blue, coming from the boat. before he even realized it, a sword buried itself into the stone right next to him, followed by a flicker of blue, merging back to a body.

“Noct,” he croaked.

Noctis looked frazzled, but extremely relieved. He had a big smile on his face and pulled Prompto into a hug without a warning. The blond couldn’t care less, digging his fingers in Noctis’ jacket, he buried his face in his friend’s shoulder.

“I thought you were dead,” Prompto said, voice sounding muffled against the fabric.

“The boat’s pretty broken but we were close enough to Altissia,” Noctis explained with a tight voice. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”

With the boat finally close enough, Prompto could see that it belonged to the Coast Guard. So they really looked for him. Ignis and Gladio were with them too and helped the other two get on board, where Prompto was looked over by one of the Guards.

Only minutes later were on their way back. The blond was wrapped in a thick blanket and his injury cleaned and bandaged. It already felt so much better just not having salt aggravating the wound anymore.

Noctis didn’t leave his side the whole time and so the raven sat right next to him, giving Prompto the chance to rest his head on his shoulder.

“You alright?” Noctis asked.

Prompto weakly nodded. “I’ll be okay. And thank you. For looking for me.”


End file.
